Tag: leadership

Public Speaking helps your career advancement

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Professional life is changing significantly and not only due to the last two years of the pandemic but also due to different needs people have in their workplaces. Life as we know it is not a one-career-per-lifetime world anymore. People change jobs on a routine basis and may even jump careers. It is not unimaginable to move from construction to a trainer or urban engineer to a pizza chef. Therefore to navigate the more and more professionally complex environment, we need new skills to develop.

In Tampere Toastmasters, we believe that public speaking helps our career growth and advancement because of five reasons:

We become better communicators.

By delivering prepared speeches regularly, we are working on a variety of speaking skills. There are projects we can focus on body language, voice variety, dealing with difficult audiences, and timing. Crafting a solid message comes with time, as in the beginning, we focus on consistency.

Table Topics provide a setting for practising impromptu speaking; preparing to talk about an unfamiliar topic for 1-2 minutes helps when encountering someone new and with nothing to say. Pick a topic and go confidently with it; we learn.

Speaking skills can help you excel in job interviews, pitch an idea or asking for a promotion.

We have a chance to take leadership roles.

In a Toastmasters club, everyone is given a chance to conduct a meeting. Being a Toastmaster of the evening allows you to build soft skills like time management, self-confidence and poise, effectively lead meetings, increased productivity. Table topics master practices active listening and members’ engagement, and every other role have something to teach us. Each club has many different opportunities to lead. You can join the board, consisting of the president, vice president of education, treasurer and a few more. On a higher level, we could also be an area, division or district director. Dream as big as you want!

We learn to give and receive feedback.

If you want to practice receiving and implementing feedback, Toastmasters is a very supportive and feedback-driven environment that will push and encourage you to do so. Every performance during a meeting is evaluated, and every one of us has a chance to learn something new. Giving feedback is not simply stating our opinion, but it should bring real value to the other person. It is not telling people what they did wrong. It mainly tells people what they did right, supporting them to learn and grow.

In an ideal world, feedback is a gift to give and a gift to receive when we incorporate feedback to accelerate our progress; we improve faster.

We are responsible for our personal development.

‘Without commitment, you’d never start, but more importantly, without consistency, you’d never grow’. It’s a choice to work on our skills that we make consciously.

We have a chance to connect with people internationally.

There are more than 300K Toastmasters globally. Visiting a club has never been easier with virtual travelling. Meeting people with different backgrounds, cultures, and experiences broaden our horizons and expand our opportunity to be more visible and employable. Public speaking can be a great way to network and meet others in your industry or who have similar interests.

It’s incredible how much you can achieve with good public speaking abilities. Why not try it?

— Written by Mina Kostova
Vice President of Public Relations

Four reasons to practice Public Speaking

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Have you ever felt that gut-punching feeling when you’re asked to speak in front of people?

Maybe you felt numb, your stomach sank, your palms were sweating, and your mind was racing wild? 

Public speaking shouldn’t make you ill with nervousness. It should be an opportunity to get your point across. Here are our Tampere Toastmasters four reasons why practising public speaking is a good thing:

* Public speaking can change your mindset
Changing your mindset over time from “I can’t do this” to “I can, and I will” will surprise you. Setting small goals within the Pathways help a lot. You push the parameters trying new things. Before you know it, you’ll be confident and easy to go.

* Public speaking creates confidence
Effective communication is not reserved for the loudest voices in the room. Everyone can use communication skills to enhance their life and career. Practising public speaking will bring a sense of control and fulfilment after you deliver a speech, however big or small. You’ll stand taller, be more assured and far more positive.

* Public speaking pushes out your comfort zone
Public speaking helps to push out your comfort zone, and, you know what they say: ‘Life begins at the edge of your comfort zone.’ It starts with a small square, but this square grows and expands when you tiptoe in all directions. Your confidence will grow, and you’ll feel comfortable within a giant square or a circle, wherever you want. You’ll understand more, see things differently, feel more confident and aware of yourself and the world around you.

* Inspire others with public speaking
There are no two brains alike, do you know that? There is only one of you who has your unique combination of experiences and skills. How special is that? We tend to listen and admire others and rarely dare to share our stories.
Dare to think differently! Challenge yourself! Dare to be the best possible you! Dare to inspire!

#tamperetoastmasters#publicspeaking#communication#leadership#community#network#mindset#people

— Written by Mina Kostova
Vice President of Public Relations

Six ideas on how to use Public Speaking as a confidence booster

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When it comes to confidence, ‘build’ is the keyword. ‘Build’ indicates that gaining confidence is a gradual, step-by-step, experience-by-experience process. The great news is it does not necessarily need to be a slow process! 

Here are our Six Tampere Toastmasters ideas on how to build on it.

Set goals

The word confidence comes from the Latin word “fidere”, which means to trust; therefore, confidence is trust in ourselves. One of the best ways to start building on our confidence is by keeping small promises to ourselves. Gradually we start trusting in our ability to keep these promises, and we are ready to thrive. As a member of a Toastmasters club, you can start with small goals like taking on a meeting role, for example. When you feel familiar and more attuned to the club’s meetings, you can give a speech.

Challenge yourself with impromptu speeches

Table topics is a signature activity for a Toastmasters club. Table Topics hones the skill of creating an impromptu response that is straight to the point and engaging. During Table Topics, all attendees have an opportunity to present one- to two-minute impromptu talks. This is often the most fun part of our meetings. Don’t miss the opportunity; next time, jump in.

Practice before giving a speech

You have confidence when you know you can do something. Many people just don’t practice enough in front of an audience in a friendly environment with no consequences if mistakes are made. If you want to build your confidence as a speaker, be intentional about investing time in developing your speaking skills. Practising will help you master the art of public speaking, and this is the key reason why our clubs exist – to allow speakers like you to practice, which will build your confidence. Practice results in progress, and your confidence gets built when you know you are making progress.

Be consistent 

A Toastmasters club gives you an invaluable opportunity to be consistent in your intention to improve your communication skills. The regularity of meetings, the variety of roles one can have and be active during every meeting, eleven different pathways with projects of all kinds that one might work on … you name it. It’s up to you to dedicate and invest time in your personal development.

Challenge yourself even more by attending contests 

It takes a lot of courage to be a contestant, true. However, you can start small on a club level. There are contests for a speech, for an evaluation, for an impromptu speech. Contests, by their nature, have higher stakes than regular club speeches, which means more practice. Competing on a club level strengthens our skills and boosts confidence because we perform in the same safe environment we are used of. Familiar faces, fellow club members, it’s safe not to be perfect.

Celebrate your small/big wins

There is no greater boost of our confidence than the satisfaction and fulfilment after a well-done job. Achieving our goals isn’t always easy. It takes hard work and inner strength, and it’s easy to forget to take time for ourselves. When you reach a milestone or complete a particularly hard task, relax. Celebrate success with whatever makes you happy.

— Written by Mina Kostova
Vice President of Public Relations

Toastmasters club can help develop Leadership Skills

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Have you ever thought that leadership is only for a few? More like corporative stuff for managers and executives?

Peter Drucker postulated that “The only definition of a leader is someone who has followers.” To elaborate a bit on the definition: Leadership is a process of social influence, which maximises the efforts of others towards the achievement of a goal. Put it this way, there is nothing to do with titles, position in the hierarchy or personal attitudes. The truth is that at some point or another, we all face the chance to work with other people, collaborate on projects or start something on our own.

By participating in Toastmasters, there are a number of ways we can acquire and practice our abilities to work with others and develop skills you may never have thought possible or necessary. But the best is we can gain this experience and confidence without jeopardising our career growth.

For example by taking an officer role can:

Vice President Education develops skills like strategic planning, evaluating individuals’ performance and determining strengths/weaknesses, and applying successful mentoring techniques. Work with members to establish individual short-term and long-term goals.

On the other hand, Vice President Membership is responsible for planning and organising activities to retain current members and attract new ones. Skills in marketing, networking and relationship-building, positive small group collaboration are built.

Vice President Public Relations learns how to promote the club. Creating social media presence, developing a communication plan, writing blog posts, and interacting with local communities are invaluable additions to one’s arsenal of skills.

Treasurer manages the club’s finances, including creating and maintaining a budget, basic bookkeeping, collecting club dues, and paying bills are a few of the responsibilities to keep the financial stability of a club.

These activities need to be studied and developed by leveraging our strengths, but credibility and confidence are built with time. Everyone is a leader if we consider that leadership starts with leading self, and we voluntarily participate in our clubs’ activities to create a positive experience of learning and growth.

— Written by Mina Kostova
Vice President of Public Relations

Club Speech Contest October 2021

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How can people become better communicators in their daily life? 

Our Table topics contestants agreed on practice, crafting a message, listening actively (especially to your wife), and practising again. We are happy to have Jose representing our Tampere Toastmasters club at the Area contest on the 30th of October.

We also time-travelled to Egypt with Leena, and the early 1940s with Laura and Jose transmitted us to a neuroscience journey. 
You bet we had a good time! And guests from Spain, UK and ….. Taiwan – the beauty of virtual travelling.

#tamperetoastmasters #publicapeaking #communication #leadership#community #networking

Written by —Mina Kostova

Club Contest October 2021